vours, To bring your most imperial majesties And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps, Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart, Losing both beauty and utility. And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges, Defective in their natures, grow to wildness; Even so our houses, and ourselves, and children, Have lost, or do not learn, for want of time, K. Hen. If, duke of Burgundy, you would the peace, You have, enschedul'd briefly, in your hands. K. Hen. Well then, the peace, Fr. King. I have but with a cursorary eye O'er-glanc'd the articles: pleaseth your grace To appoint some of your council presently To sit with us once more, with better heed To re-survey them, we will, suddenly, Pass our accept, and peremptory answer. K. Hen. Brother, we shall.-Go, uncle Exeter, And take with you free power, to ratify, Haply a woman's voice may do some good, She is our capital demand, compris'd [Exeunt all but HENRY, KATHARINE, K. Hen. Fair Katharine, and most fair! Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms Such as will enter at a lady's ear, And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart? Kath. Your majesty shall mock at me; I can. not speak your England. K. Hen. O fair Katharine, if you will love me soundly with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it brokenly with your English tongue. Do you like me, Kate? Kath. Pardonnez moy, I cannot tell vat islike me. K. Hen. An angel is like you, Kate; and you are like an angel. Kath. Que dit-il? que jesuis semblable à les anges? Alice. Ouy, vrayment, (sauf vostre grace) ainsi dit il. K. Hen. I said so, dear Katharine; and I must not blush to affirm it. Kath. O bon Dieu! les langues des hom. mes sont pleines des tromperies. K Hen. What says she, fair one? that the longues of men are full of deceits? ; Alice. Ouy; dat de tongues of de mans is be full of deceits: dat is de princess. K. Hen. The princess is the better Englishwoman. I'faith, Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding: I am glad thou can'st speak no better English; for, if thou could'st, thou would'st find me such a plain king, that thou would'st think I had sold my farm to buy my crown. I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say-I love you: then, if you urge me further than to say-Do you in faith? I wear out my suit. Give me your answer; i'faith, do; and so clap hands and a bargain: How say you, lady? Kath. Sauf vostre honneur, me understand well. K. Hen. Marry, if you would put me to verses, or to dance for your sake, Kate, why you undid me: for the one, I have neither words nor measure; and for the other, I have no strength in measure, • yet a reasonable measure in strength. If I could win a lady at leapfrog, or by vaulting into my saddle with my armour on my back, under the correction of bragging be it spoken, I should quickly leap into a wife. Or, if I might buffet for my love, or bound my horse for her favours, I could lay on like a butcher, and sit like a jack-an-apes, never off but, before God, I cannot look greenly, nor gasp out my eloquence, nor I have no cunuing in protestation; only downright oaths, which I never use till urged, nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a fellow of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth sun-burning, that never looks in bis glass for And brother Clarence, and you, brother Glos-love of any thing he sees there, let thine eye be ter, thy cook. I speak to thee plain soldier: If thou canst love me for this, take me if not, to Isay to thee, that I shall die, is true; but for thy love, by the Lord, no; yet I love thee too. And while thou livest, dear Kate, take a fellow | By mine honour in true English, I love thee, of plain and uncoined constancy; for be Kate by which honour I dare not swear thou perforce must do thee right, because he hath lovest me; yet my blood begins to flatter nie not the gift to woo in other places: for these that thou dost, notwithstanding the poor and fellows of infinite tongue, that can rhyme them- untempering effect of my visage. Now bese es into ladies' favours,-they do always shrew my father's ambition! he was thinking reason themselves out again. What! a speaker of civil wars when he got me; therefore was I is but a prater; a rhyme is but a ballad. A created with stubborn outside, with an asgood leg will fall: + a straight back will stoop:pect of iron, that, when I come to woo ladies a black beard will turn white; a curled pate I fright them. But in faith, Kate, the elder will grow bald; a fair face will wither; a full I wax, the better I shall appear: my comfort eye will wax hollow but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and moon; or rather the sun, and Bot the moon; for it shines bright, and never changes, but keeps his course truly. If thou would have such a one, take me: And take me, take a soldier: take a soldier, take a king And what sayest thou then to my love? speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee. Kath. Is it possible dat I should love de enemy of France ? is, that old age, that ill layer-up of beauty, can do no more spoil upon my face: thou hast me, if thou hast me, at the worst; and thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and better; And therefore tell me, most fair Katharine, will you have me: Put off your maiden blushes; avouch the thoughts of your heart with the looks of an empress; take me by the band, and say-Harry of England, I am thine: which word thou shalt no sooner bless miue K. Hen. No; it is not possible you should ear withal, but I will tell thee aloud-England love the enemy of France, Kate: but in loving is thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, me, you should love the friend of France; for and Henry Plantagenet is thine; who, though i I love France so well, that I will not part with speak it before his face, if he be not fellow a village of it; I will have it all mine: and, with the best king, thou shalt find the best king Kate, when France is mine, and I am your's, of good fellows. Come, your answer in brothen your's is France, and you are mine. ken music; for thy voice is music, and thy English broken: therefore, queen of all, Katharine, break thy mind to me in broken English. Wilt thou have ine? Kath. I cannot tell vat is dat. K. Hen. No, Kate? I will tell thee in French; which, I am sure, will hang upon my tongue like a new-married wife about her husband's neck, hardly to be shook off. Quand j'ay la possession de France, et quand vous avez le possession de moi, (let me see, what then? Saint Dennis be my speed !)-donc vostre est France, et vous estes mienne. It is as easy for me, Kate, to conquer the kingdom, as to speak so much more French; I shall never move thee in French: unless it be to laugh at me. Kath. Sauf vostre honneur, le François quevous parlez, est meilleur que l'Anglois le quel je parle. K. Hen. No, 'faith, 'tis not, Kate: but thy speaking of my tongue, and I thine, most truly falsely, must needs be granted to be much at one. But, Kate, dost thou understand thus much English? Canst thou love me ? Kath. 1 connot tell. Kath. Dat is, as it shall please de roy mon pere. K. Hen. Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall please him, Kate. Kath. Den it shall also content me. K. Hen. Upon that I will kiss your hand, and I call you--my queen. Kath. Laissez, mon sicgneur, laissez, laissez: ma foy, je ne veux point que vous abaissez vostre grandeur, en baisant la main d'une vostre indigne serviteure; excusez moy, je vous supplie, mon tres puissant seigneur. K. Hen. Then I will kiss your lips, Kate. Kath. Les dames, et damoiselles, pour estre baises devant leur nopces il n'est pas le coutume de France. K. Hen. Madam, my interpreter, what says she? Atice. Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of France,-I cannot tell what is baiser en English. K. Hen. To kiss. Alice. Your Majesty entendre bettre que moy. K. Hen. It is not the fashion for the maids France to kiss before they are married, would she say? in Alice. Ouz, vrayment. K. Hen. Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll ask them. Come, I know, thou lovest me: and at night, when you come into your closet, you'll question this gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will, to her, dispraise those parts in me, that you love with your heart: but, good Kate, mock me mercifully; the rather, gentle princess, because I love thee cruelly. If ever thou be'st mine, K. Hen. O Kate, nice customs curt'sy to Kate, (as I have a saving faith within me, tells great kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be me thou shalt,) I get thee with scambling, confined within the weak list of a country's and thou must therefore needs prove a good fashion: we are the makers of manners, Kate; soldier-breeder: Shall not thou and 1, be- and the liberty that follows our places, stops tween Saint Dennis and Saint George, com- the months of all find-faults; as I will do your's, pound a boy, half French, half English, that for upholding the nice fashion of your country, shall go to Constantinople, and take the Turkin denying me a kiss: therefore, patiently, and by the beard? shall we not? what sayest thou, yielding. [Kissing her.] You have witchcraft my fair flower-de-Ince ? Kath. I do not know dat. K. Hen. No; 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promise: do but now promise, Kate, you will endeavour for your French part of such a boy; and, for my English moiety, take the word of a king and a bachelor. How answer you, la plus belle Katharine du monde mon tres chere et divine deesse? Kath. Your majesté 'ave fausse French enough to deceive de most suge demoiselle dat is en France. K. Hen. Now, fie upon my false French! He means, resembling a plain piece of metal which has not yet received any impression. Fall away. Henry V. had been dead 31 years before the Turks became possessed of Constantinople that event took place in 1453. in your lips, Kate: there is more eloquence in a sugar touch of them, than in the tongues of the French Council; and they should sooner persuade Harry of England, than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father. Enter the FRENCH KING and QUEEN, BURGUNDY, BEDFORD, GLOSTER, EXETER, WESTMORELAND, and other French and English Lords. Bur. God save your majesty! my royal cousin, teach you our princess English? K. Hen. I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how perfectly I love her; and that is good English, Bur. Is she not apt? 1. e. Though my face has no power to sefa yaü. + Slight barrier. K. Hen. Our tongue is rough, coz; and my condition is not smooth so that, having neither the voice nor the heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up the spirit of love in her, that he will appear in his true likeness. Bur. Pardon the frankness of my mirth, if I answer you for that. If you would conjure in her you must make a circle: if conjure up love in her in his true likeness, he must appear naked and blind: Can you blame her then, being a maid yet rosed over with the virgin crimson of modesty, if she deny the appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked seeing self? It were, my lord, a bard condition for a maid to consign to. K. Hen. Yet they do wink and yield; as love is blind, and enforces. Bur. They are then excused, my lord, when they see not what they do. K. Hen. Then, good my lord, each your cousin to consent to winking. K. Hen. I pray you then, in love and dear alliance, Let that one article rank with the rest : Issue to me: that the contending kingdoms All. Amen! K. Hen. Now welcome, Kate :-and bear me witness all, That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen. [Flourish. Q. Isa. God, the best maker of all marriages, Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one ! Bur. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will teach her to know my meaning: for maids, well summered and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they As man and wife, being two, are one in love, have their eyes; and then they will endure So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal, handling, which before would not abide look-That never may ill office, or fell jealousy, ing on. Which troubles oft the bed of blessed mar K. Hen. This moral ties me over to time, and a hot summer; and so I will catch the fly, your cousin, in the latter end, and she must be blind too. Bur. As love is, my lord, before it loves. K. Hen. It is so and you may, some of you, thank love for my blindness; who cannot see many a fair French city, for one fair French maid that stands in my way. Fr. King. Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities turned into a maid; for they are all girdled with maiden walls, that war hath never entered. K. Hen. Shall Kate be my wife? K. Hen. I am content; so the maiden cities you talk of, may wait on her so the maid, that stood in the way of my wish, shall show me the way to my will. Fr. King. We have consented to all terms of reason. K. Hen. Is't so, my lords of England? West. The king hath granted every article: His daughter, first; and then, in sequel all, According to their firm proposed natures. Exe. Only, he hath not yet subscribed this :Where your majesty demands,-That the king of France, having any occasion to write for matter of grant, shall name your highness in this form, and with this addition, in French, Notre tres cher filz Henry roy d'Angleterre, heretier de France; and thus in Latin,-Preclarissimus filius noster Henricus, rex Anglia, et hæres Franciæ. Fr. King. Nor this I have not, brother, so denied, But your request shall make me let it pass. • Temper. riage, Thrust in between the paction of these king doms, To make divorce of their incorporate league ; That English may as French, French English Thus far, with rough, and all unable pen, Mangling by starts the full course of their glory. [liv'd Small time, but in that small, most greatly This star of England: fortune made his sword; By which the world's best garden + he achiev'd, And of it left his son imperial lord. Henry the sixth, in infant bands crown'd king Of France and England did this king succeed; Whose state so many had the managing, That they lost France, and made his England bleed : Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake, In your fair minds let this acceptance take. [Exit. 1. e. Unequal to the weight of the subject. France. |